Tour de France GC to be "the number one target" for Ben O'Connor in 2025 according to Jayco AlUla boss

Ben O'Connor starred at both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana in a breakthrough 2024 season for the Australian. Having signed a deal with Team Jayco AlUla for the 2025 season though, a return to the Tour de France is now set to be the main focus.

O'Connor does have previous with the Tour de France, taking a stage win back in 2021 en route to finishing 4th overall. “He’ll build back from the Tour de France, and that race will be the number one target for the summer,” Team Jayco AlUla boss Matt White says in conversation with Daniel Benson’s Cycling Substack. “There will probably be a fairly traditional build-up from February and the rest of the spring, and then he’ll have a rest and build-up for the Tour. And then we might even see him backing up at the Vuelta at the end of the season.”

In recent seasons, Simon Yates has held Team Jayco AlUla's GC ambitions at the Tour de France, but with the Brit departing for a new challenge at Team Visma | Lease a Bike in the coming seasons, O’Connor has been drafted in as a GC replacement, with the added bonus of him being an Australian leader of an Australian team.

“Ben has had an incredible year and was one of the most consistent riders on the planet when you look at his season breakdown…In almost every race he did, he was on the podium. It’s an exciting time for us and the first time we’ve had an Australian GC leader. We’ve had Aussie winners with Simon Gerrans, Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews, but no GC leader,” White says. “He’s been able to put the package together more consistently. He’s always shown flashes of brilliance throughout his career and he’s just at a stage now where he’s been able to put it together for big stretches. For Ben going into next year, the confidence that he’s gained this year will only be a real benefit. I know he’s excited to join an Australian team and lead from the front."

“We’ll run the same model that we’ve had in the past in that we’ll be taking a sprinter to the Tour and Ben. That’s the template we’ve had with Simon Yates and Dylan Groenewegen. We’ve got a few other guys putting their hand up for the Tour, like Eddie Dunbar, and Mauro Schmid, so we’ve got a good group,” White concludes. “The devil will be in the detail when it comes to the route for the Giro. We’ll have someone riding GC there. At the moment we’re thinking maybe Chris Harper for GC. It’s a race that suits his characteristics but we’re not going there to win. We’re going there for a top GC result, whether that’s top eight or something around there.”